Amicus Briefs - News from the Alexander Campbell King Law Library  
February 2003
 
In This Issue Reading Room Name Photo

 
The 'New' Carl E. Sanders    Reading Room
The Law Library's main reading room has recently been named the "Carl E. Sanders Reading Room" to honor a longtime friend of the Library and the School of Law. And last week we installed the new name on the east wall of the reading room.

Now the chairman of Atlanta law firm Troutman Sanders, Carl Sanders has been a committed supporter of the Library since he served as Georgia's governor from 1963 until 1967. By securing improved state funding for the law school as well as through personal gifts -- most recently a $1 million donation to establish the Carl E. Sanders Chair in Political Leadership -- Gov. Sanders has had an enormous impact on both the school and the Law Library.

The Carl E. Sanders Reading Room will be rededicated in a ceremony scheduled for Friday, October 3.

 
A Glimmer of Things to Come
In March, if all goes well, the reading room and the balcony will get a whole new look and achieve a whole new level of functionality.  The new study tables and chairs are scheduled to be installed over spring break, March 17-21.  There will be a total of 20 6-person tables and 18 4-person tables on the main level, as well as an assortment of carrels on the balcony.  Each table will have an attractive lamp and several power outlets for laptops, so no more eye strain from bad lights and no more ugly power strips on the table tops.  The new furniture, like the circulation desk, reference desk, computer carrels and study carrels, is from Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers of Maine.  Our tables were custom designed for us, but you can get an idea what they are likely to look like by going to the web site at http://www.thosmoser.com/libraries/index_furn.htm .  Our tables will look most like the Ashcraft Table on the web site, but will not have a solid end panel.  The pedestal in the center of the table will fit over the wiring that was installed this summer so that each table will be hard wired for power.  Study seating is the Courtroom Chair.  Some of the chairs will have arms and some will be armless.  The chair arms have been modified to meet several of your objections, as I explained in the last Amicus Briefs.  Like the furniture that is already here, the new furniture will be solid cherry wood with a natural oil and wax finish.  The new furniture will transform the reading room.  This newly completed renovation is a real milestone for the Alexander Campbell King Law Library, probably the most important one since the Annex was completed in 1981. 
 
Placing Holds in GAVEL
The Law Library's online catalog, GAVEL, now allows our patrons to place a hold on an item that is checked out, being processed, or otherwise currently unavailable. 

In order to place the hold: 

  • access the GAVEL record for the item
  • click on the "request hold if checked out" button in the upper right hand corner of  the record
  • at the prompt, enter your name and university i.d.
  • you may also specify a date after which the hold is cancelled
  • if it is not filledafter you submit the information, you will be asked to specify a particular volume or issue if relevant
  • if this is an item that cannot be held, a message will appear so stating
  • if your request is successful, the system will display a confirmation screen -- please ask  for assistance at Circulation or Reference if the screen does not display a confirmation 

When the item becomes available, the Circulation Desk will notify you that the item is being held for you until a specified date. If you do not pick up the item by that date, we will cancel the hold and return the item to the shelves. 

Remember: the Circulation and Reference staffs can assist you in placing holds on items. 

 
Library Lookup
Jon Udell, lead analyst at InfoWorld's test center, wanted to check his local library's catalog while simultaneously browsing through Amazon.com.  The result: he developed a Library Lookup bookmarklet that feeds the ISBN (International Serial Book Number) from book vendor web sites into the online catalogs of many library systems.

Using the Library Lookup bookmarklet below, you can add GAVEL to your toolbar.  The Library Lookup bookmarklet will check to see if books are available in GAVEL while you visit book-related sites such as Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.  The bookmarklet will feed a book's  ISBN into GAVEL and pop up a new window telling you whether the UGA Law LIbrary owns the book. 

To install, drag the link to your browser's link toolbar.  Clicking the link won't work. The link is a  bookmarklet -- little bits of JavaScript code.  You "install" it  by dragging it to your browser's link toolbar. 

USA - Georgia - Athens - University of Georgia Law Library

If you'd like to add other libraries to your toolbar, visit Jon Udell's Library Lookup homepage (http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/stories/2002/12/11/librarylookup.html) and follow the instructions for choosing other libraries. 

 
LexisNexis Congressional
The law library subscribes to many valuable online databases, including Legaltrac, Hein Online, and the CCH Online Tax Research Network.  One of these databases, LexisNexis Congressional, is an essential tool for anyone who must find and use information about the activities of Congress or publications produced by Congress.

LexisNexis Congressional provides comprehensive indexing and abstracting of Congressional publications, including hearings (testimony), committee prints, reports, documents, and public laws. It also includes the full text of bills, committee reports, House and Senate documents, selected testimony and committee prints, and bill tracking.

You may access LexisNexis Congressional from the library's Research Resources page. The link there takes you to a LexisNexis screen from which you must select "Congressional".  The first five search forms available there -- CIS Index, Congressional Indexes, Publications, Testimony, and Bills -- offer valuable information that is not available in any other single online source.

CIS Index is obviously an indexing service but it also provides abstracts of congressional publications.  You may search by subject, keyword, law or bill number, publication title, witness name, or the name of the committee issuing the publication.  CIS Index covers the period from 1970 to the present.

Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969 offers indexing of congressional publications for the period before CIS Index. You may search this index by subject, bill number, publication title, witness name, or committee name.

The Publications section offers full text searching of Committee Reports, House and Senate Documents, Committee Prints, bills, and the Congressional Record.  The searchable database includes all Committee Reports from 1990 to the present, all House and Senate Documents from 1995, approximately 15 percent of committee prints from the 104th Congress (1995), bills from 1989, and Congressional Record from 1985.

Testimony links to a form which allows searching of discussion transcripts and submitted written testimony from Congressional hearings using combinations of keywords, witness name, Committee name, and hearing date. The database includes written submitted testimony for almost all congressional hearings from 1993 forward and transcripts of discussion sessions from selected hearings. Coverage from 1988 to1993 is less comprehensive. 

The search forms on LexisNexis Congressional are straightforward and easy to use.  You may search with virtually any combination of information (keyword, name, date, committee, publication number).  Be sure to give this database a try the next time you need information from or about Congress.